Screw The Monarchy - Sidelines
by Issandri
Summary: Some voices don't get to be heard, depending on who's telling the story - but screw that. [Drabbles in the STM universe]
1. The Princess and the Jester

Middle School was hard. Even harder in a new place, with new people. Elsa wasn't so good with people. Her father had told her it was a matter of projecting confidence, which her mother explained only meant you had to fake it until it felt real. Conceal any worries stirring up butterflies in your stomach, try not to allow yourself to feel scared or unhappy, don't show any signs of discomfort - pretend it's like a play. Elsa had been on the stage before, under her mother's influence, during a brief stint of participating in pageants, but the attitudes of the other mothers quickly chased the Winters family away. She knew how to smile even if she didn't mean it.

Still, sixth grade meant she was out of elementary school, and therefore was supposed to be maturing into a young woman. Or so she assumed. The other girls at Arendelle Middle School hadn't seemed to have gotten that particular memo. Those in her class stared and whispered plainly when she was introduced to the class by Mrs. Corona - who happened to be her aunt - and the girl she was placed next to sneered at her when she sat down.

She sat with her eyes glued to her desk for the rest of class, wishing she could be home. Once they were dismissed for recess, Elsa lingered, watching everyone pile out to escape to the outside world for a half-hour and play with their friends. She stood next to her aunt's desk, leaning against it in what she hoped was a nonchalant way, and didn't meet her gaze until she called her name.

"Aren't you going to go outside, Elsa?" Mrs. Corona asked.

"No thank you, Auntie," Elsa responded, fiddling with her small braid. "I would like to talk to you, please." The woman looked bemused, but nodded all the same.

"Alright. What would you like to talk about?"

"Well, I started reading a new book today," she began, letting her eyes wander around the classroom as she spoke. "It was very interesting." Her aunt gave her a strange smile and shook her head.

"Elsa… Why don't you go outside? I'm sure one of your classmates would love to talk about books with you." Elsa nibbled on her lip and furrowed her brow, trying to read the older woman's face to see if she could get away with arguing. The quirked brow, a trait shared with her brother - Elsa's father - told her that it was best to give up now.

Still, she gave it one last shot. "Um, Auntie? I'm kind of…" She wracked her brain to come up with a word for how hard it was to swallow down the sick feeling churning in her stomach.

"Scared?" Mrs. Corona suggested, laying a hand on Elsa's shoulder. "Listen, Elsa, it's okay to be a bit nervous. I know you don't do very well with strangers, but I assure you, if you just go up and introduce yourself to one of the girls in class, you'll make a friend."

Elsa sighed and nodded, adjusting her skirt and brushing the front free of dirt, real and imaginary. Her legs trembled as she walked outside. She felt a brief urge to climb the jungle gym, but it was full of screaming children running around, chasing each other and laughing raucously. She spotted a gazebo, but there was already a group of girls, hunched and whispering. One of them looked her way, locked gazes with her, and then turned back to the group, whispering faster and making gestures with her hand. More glances shot her way, and tittering laughter shook the group. Elsa clenched her hands and looked down at the ground, making her way over to the fence and sitting down with her back against it, hugging her knees and hiding her face in her arms. She sat there for a while, wishing that recess could be over faster.

"It's because you're too pretty," a voice said, accompanied by a rattling and the jerking of the chain link fence against her back. She looked up and saw a redheaded girl dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. She was very dirty, and had scratches all over her face. Her hair was wild even in its twin braids.

"Pardon?"

"You're too pretty," the girl repeated, grinning down at Elsa. Elsa frowned at her and the redhead waved her hands in front of her like she was trying to stop a car from hitting her. "I mean, I don't think you're too pretty - not that I don't think you're pretty, I mean, you're gorgeous, but that's the problem - they don't like it when girls are prettier than they are, so they're gonna make you beg to play with them." The girl snorted and then made a hacking noise in her throat before spitting through the fence. She largely missed the hole she was aiming for, so her loogie ended up dripping from the metal.

Elsa wrinkled her nose. "That's disgusting."

The girl shrugged and smiled brightly at her. "Sorry." There was a pause, and the girl stuck out her hand, her grin growing wider. "I'm Andersen. Anna, Andersen." Elsa quirked an eyebrow at the silly voice Anna introduced herself in, but stood, brushing off her bottom, and delicately took her hand.

"Elsa Winters," she said, wincing when Anna shook her hand up and down with an extreme excess of force.

"Nice to meet you, Winters," Anna said, grinning. They stood, staring at each other for a few moments, before Anna shoved her hands into her pockets and kicked the fence again. "Okay, now you can go make friends."

Elsa blinked in surprise. "But, um," she began, gnawing on her lip. She saw Anna looking at her mouth, so she stopped immediately. She knew it was a bad habit. "Aren't we… Can't we be friends?"

Anna looked surprised for a moment, threw back her head and laughed. Elsa felt her stomach becoming upset again. "Naw," Anna said, shaking her head and giving Elsa a sheepish grin. "You don't wanna be friends with me. Tell you what. There's a girl who always sits on the bleachers by the basketball court and reads during recess." She jerked a thumb to indicate the place she was talking about. "Her name is Belle. I'm sure you guys would make great friends."

"But…"

Anna started to look uncomfortable as she glanced around. "I gotta go. Good luck!" She tossed Elsa one last grin and raced off. Elsa watched her jump on the back of a boy almost twice her size and give him a noogie, cackling all the while. Her eyes drifted over to the basketball courts, and she saw the girl that Anna had most likely been talking about. She seemed calm and collected, sitting with her legs together and reading a rather large book. She was clean, and her hair was neat, and she seemed actually rather approachable to Elsa. The blonde girl fiddled with her braid, resisting the urge to chew her lip again, and with one last look towards the jungle gym, walked over towards the basketball courts.


	2. The Queen's Advisor

Belle closed her book gently, setting it aside on the table, and glanced up. "That's the sixth time you've sighed in the last ten minutes."

Elsa continued staring off into the distance, hair artfully swept across her face, the perfect picture of a brooding teenager. "I'm glad you've been keeping count," she grumped, cupping her chin and resting her elbow on the table. Her lunch sat untouched in front of her, but that might have been because it was an unidentifiable pile of mush and not because of any lack of appetite on Elsa's part.

Following her gaze, Belle rolled her eyes. "Please. As long as you keep staring at her, I could probably write an algorithm that calculates how many times you'll sigh before lunch is over."

"I'm not staring," Elsa said defensively, but she didn't look towards Belle. Raising her eyebrows, Belle leaned in closer and lined up her sight exactly with Elsa's pressing her face against Elsa's cheek.

"Beep. Beep. Beep. Target locked. Anna Andersen in our cross-hairs." She dodged before Elsa could shove her and giggled at Elsa's glower.

"You're ridiculous," Elsa sniffed.

"You're a virgin who can't drive."

An indignant squawk from across the lunchroom drew Anna's attention. Two of the cheerleaders were chasing each other around, playfully grabbing for each other and slapping each other's arms. She snorted and went back to shoveling her food into her face. Beside her, Kristoff watched them, amused.

"Wonder if they'll bust out pillows and start pulling off their clothes next." Anna punched him in the shoulder.

"This isn't a lesbian porno you freak." She glanced back over at the girls. The roaring blonde had the cackling brunette in a headlock. Rolling her eyes, she threw her backpack onto her shoulder and stood up. "Let's jet."


	3. The Queen's Court

Most people wouldn't find being flung into the air with no absolute guarantees of someone being there to catch you a bit alarming.

Most days, Elsa found it rather relaxing, actually. Honestly, a lot of what she found relaxing would probably make people look at her funny if they knew. Vaulting over her fellow, shimmying cheerleaders; huge, bright fluorescent lights beaming down to illuminate the field; frenzied screaming from the stands… These things kept her breath steady, kept her calm and cool and collected.

All it took to shatter that calm was landing on her feet and remembering chapped lips brushing against her own.

Elsa stumbled. She corrected herself quickly, and likely none of the Arendelle fans noticed; they were too busy yowling about a touchdown, and the moment was over as the whistle blew. That meant another twenty one pushups.

"Hans can take it down a notch," Wendy complained. "We're already well ahead! My arms feel like I flew here."

Elsa smiled, and no doubt the expression looked rather vicious.

"The year's just starting, kiddo," Tiana informed her, although she was also addressing Alice, who was already struggling through the first five.

"Hell, the _game's_ just starting," Rapunzel added, her muscles straining as she dipped up and down. "At least you haven't had to deal with three years of his showboating ass." As though to prove her right, Hans was still doing his victory dance in the endzone.

Elsa finished up her push ups and rocked back into a squat.

Arielle giggled and let out an airy sigh. "I wouldn't mind three years with his ass."

Tiana snorted. "I'll bet Eric will be thrilled to hear that."

"Just his ass!" Arielle protested, giggling again and tossing her hair. "The rest of Eric is perfect, but he has nothing on the Westergard Ass Gene."

Tiana and Rapunzel shared a look, then they both tossed the same exasperated expression at Elsa, but she was already far gone, scanning the bleachers for a familiar face she knew wouldn't be there.

" _It's enough you made me go to the rally. I got school spirit splattered all over me. I need to go home and wash it off."_

"What are you grinning about?" Belle's question sounded like she already knew the answer, and she was just trying to embarrass Elsa. The flush that spread over her cheeks when the rest of the squad looked at her said she'd succeeded.

"Shut up," she replied, and the younger members of the squad looked away. They didn't know the dynamic between Belle and Elsa yet, and didn't want to get in the middle of a fight. Not after what happened with Esmeralda and Cindy the day before.

"Oh, so _that's_ why," Belle sang sweetly, and cackled when Elsa shoved her over. They stood up once Wendy heaved out the last of her push ups, doing some relatively easy flips, sways, and claps while the opposing team inched their way across the field. Elsa and Belle stood together, with Tiana on the other side of Belle and Rapunzel standing next to her. Snow and Rory were at their backs, subdued with the loss of their head bitch.

"So," Rapunzel drawled, vibrating her pom poms and waving her arms up and down. "What happened?"

Elsa could feel them looking at her intently, listening hard. She looked around briefly, noting that Jasmine was showing Wendy and Alice a tip to keep flexible and loose on their feet, so they could change position more easily. Arielle brought up the rear jumping back and forth and occasionally letting out a 'woo!' and tossing a wink at some students who were leaning against the fence nearby.

"Did you ask her?" Belle kept her voice as low as she could, so that Elsa could hear her over the crowd but hopefully Snow and Rory couldn't.

Elsa's mouth went dry. She swallowed a few times, then gave a shaky half smile. "Yeah."

"Well?" Tiana broke formation to eagerly lean in, wrapping her arm around Belle's shoulder. "What did she say?"

"She said… She said yes."

Their squealing thankfully coincided with the Arendelle team pilfering the ball and undoing all of Berk's progress, running halfway down the field before getting tackled to the ground. Elsa tried as hard as she could to scowl when they swarmed her for a hug, but she couldn't keep the huge grin off her face or the fluttering warmth out of her heart.

Later, after the game, when Elsa had told Belle Anna's _exact words_ after being interrogated thoroughly about what it was like and how she felt, it was easy enough to scowl.

"' _Yeah, okay'_?" Belle screeched, affronted. "What kind of answer is _that_?"

"A positive one," Elsa growled, pulling on a sweater. The evening was chilly, and she was starving. Concession popcorn did not a wholesome dinner make.

"Well, it's kind of lame, isn't it?" Belle pulled on her own sweater and got stuck trying to put her head through the hole. Elsa watched, amused, as she struggled, not offering any assistance.

"That's kind of how she operates," Elsa said with a sigh, and wrinkled her nose when Belle made gagging noises from her sweater trap.

"You are so gross," she teased, finally pulling her head through, and Elsa resisted the urge to trip her as they walked. "But for real, Elsa, I'm happy for you. It's about damn time, too. Way to wait til the last minute."

"I've been trying all week," Elsa protested. "I just get… distracted."

"Okay, ew," Belle made a face and laughed. "I don't want to know about your… distracting activities."

"You're the one who called in the middle of those activities," Elsa mumbled, and Belle stopped in her tracks.

" _That's_ who you were with yesterday? God, I was so frantic I forgot to ask, but - Jesus, Elsa, what the hell? ' _I was talking to someone else'_ \- Cryptic much? You're lucky Anna didn't hear you say that shit, otherwise she would have thought you had something to hide-"

Elsa's guilty look told Belle everything she needed to know.

" _Elsa Marie!_ "

"That's not even my middle name," Elsa protested weakly. Belle yanked her into a headlock and started noogie-ing without mercy, mussing Elsa's hair.

"You _dummy_! And how the hell did she hear you whisper that? She either has bat hearing or was practically in your lap-"

When Elsa said nothing, Belle crowed indignantly.

" _Elsa Lyn_!"

"Still not my middle name!" Elsa squawked, jerking out of Belle's grip and stumbling through the fence into the parking lot.

"You are a super dummy!"

"She still said yes!" Elsa retorted, and Belle jabbed her right in the arm.

"Dumb!"

"She said yes!"

"Idiot!"

"She said _yes_!"

"Stupid!"

" _She said yes!_ "

Their chests heaved from their yelling, and Belle's scowl suddenly blossomed into a grin. "She said 'yeah, okay'."

"Yeah," Elsa said, smiling brilliantly, and she wouldn't have had it any other way.


End file.
